A brief history of the Nationals and the traditional four-pitch intentional walk
On Wednesday, the Major League Baseball Players Association agreed to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s request to eliminate the four-pitch intentional walk in favor of a manager’s signal from the opposing dugout. Manfred cites the rule as one means of improving baseball’s pace of play, and while Nationals pitcher A.J. Cole is probably cool with the change, not everyone is happy to see the traditional IBB go.
What might the automatic intentional walk mean for baseball fans, and Nationals fans in particular? For one, two Nationals pitchers will be the answer to an incredibly obscure trivia question, provided the four-pitch intentional walk isn’t reinstated at some point. On Oct. 2, 2016, Max Scherzer and Reynaldo Lopez issued the final two intentional walks of the 2016 regular season, according to Baseball Reference. Lopez, who was traded to the White Sox during the offseason, will be able to tell his kids one day that he was the last pitcher in regular season history to throw four balls intentionally outside to put Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton on first base. “Why?” Lopez’s kids might respond. “That’s such a waste of time.”
Last season, there were 932 intentional walks in 2,427 regular season games, or one every 2.6 games. The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Salfino randomly sampled 10 intentional walks during the 2016 season to estimate the average time of an intentional walk as 37.25 seconds. Dividing the total time spent on intentional walks (932 x 37.25 seconds) by the number of regular season games (2,427) reveals that a dugout signal for an intentional walk would’ve saved an average of 14.3 seconds per game in 2016.
That’s not nothing, but it’s also not much. Perhaps the rule change is more palatable for purists when one considers the amount of time spent on intentional walks in Nationals games over the last 12 seasons.
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Since baseball returned to D.C. in 2005, 112 Nationals pitchers have issued 572 intentional walks to 293 batters. According to Salfino’s metric, that comes out to more than 355 minutes, or nearly six hours, of pitchers such as Pedro Astacio and Levale Speigner wanting no part of Ryan Howard and Chipper Jones. Nineteen of those minutes involved Livan Hernandez intentionally walking batters, which, while we’re on the subject of improving baseball’s pace of play, is enough time for about 11 replay reviews.
Most IBB Issued by Nationals Pitchers
1. Livan Hernandez, 31
2. Jason Bergmann, 17
3. Saul Rivera, 16
4. Sean Burnett, Mike Stanton, Craig Stammen, 15
Most IBB Drawn against Nationals Pitchers
1. Ryan Howard, 25
2. Chipper Jones, 11
3. Hanley Ramirez, 11
4. Albert Pujols, 10
Since the start of the 2005 season, 75 Nationals batters have drawn 489 intentional walks against 345 pitchers. That’s about five hours. Not surprisingly, Bryce Harper has the most intentional walks in team history (43, which took roughly 27 minutes). Peter Moylan, Chad Qualls, Derek Lowe and John Smoltz are tied for most intentional walks issued to Nationals batters all-time with five.
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Most IBB Drawn by Nationals Batters
1. Bryce Harper, 43
2. Ryan Zimmerman, 41
3. Danny Espinosa, 31
4. Nick Johnson, 30
In total, the Nationals have played 1,942 regular season games since 2005. Those games have featured 1,061 intentional walks, which have taken an estimated 659 minutes, or almost 11 hours. A dugout signal for an intentional walk would’ve trimmed an average of 20 seconds off each game during that time.
Finally, because the names on this list are too good, here are the 24 players who were issued exactly one intentional walk (totaling about 15 minutes) while members of the Nationals: Nate McLouth, Anderson Hernandez, Chris Snelling, Jhonatan Solano, Wil Cordero, Daryle Ward, Kory Casto, Marlon Anderson, Terrmel Sledge, Mike Vento, Nyjer Morgan, Wilmer Difo, Josh Bard, Aaron Boone, Jeffrey Hammonds, Lastings Milledge, Jerry Hairston, Brandon Watson, Junior Spivey, Denard Span, Alberto Gonzalez, Jamey Carroll, Asdrubal Cabrera, Adam Kennedy.
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